CHAPTER XVI.
HOUSE-CLEANING.
I LIKE a clean house.

So does Mr.Smith, and so do all men, if they would acknowledge it.

At any rate, when their dwellings seem a little dingy or dusty--a very thin coat of dinginess or dust over the whole, producing a decidedly bad effect--I say when their dwellings appear to them out of order--though ever so little--_we_ are sure to find it out.

The dull look of the house appears to be communicated to the countenance of the master thereof.

I confess that I have often been half inclined to wax and cork my husband's visage, or at least to whisk over it with the duster, and see if that experiment would not restore its sunny look.
But though men like clean houses, they do not like house-cleaning.
They have certain absurd notions which they would wish to carry out; such, for instance, as that constant-quiet, preventive care, or frequent topical applications, carefully applied, would gradually renovate the whole interior.